Laldasa (53 page)

“Open your eyes,” he said softly.

She couldn't. Couldn't look again at that hooded head, looming above her—couldn't meet its feverish eyes.

“I said, open your eyes!” This time it was a demand.

“I can't,” she whispered.

“I will not have you rob me of that, Rohina. At the moment of surata our eyes must meet. Otherwise there can be no union—no passing of the Jadu between us. It is written: ‘The Jadu passes through the eyes in the moment of Bliss as through an open doorway between rooms.'”

He wasn't sane. He couldn't be sane.

“There can be no union!” Ana sobbed. “I'm a stranger to you. You don't know me. You don't love me. This isn't union, it's rape!”

He seemed appalled. “No. Not rape. A marriage of souls. A sharing of power.”

“I can't pass the Jadu. It can't be done.”

“Oh, but it can. I've made a study of the Bogar ways, lived among them in the secret caverns, steeped myself in their knowledge. I've learned these things from the highest priests of the Bogar. I know that while their priestesses can confer only the pleasures of the body, the Rohin can reach into the very soul, can confer not only pleasure, not only Bliss, but spiritual power. I have learned this, waiting for the day when I would find a Rohin woman who had yet to share herself with a man. Who had yet to relinquish her power.”

“Myth and lies! The Rohin have nothing to do with the Bogar!”

“You must not deny me this! Open your eyes, I beg you! Look at me! Look at me!”

He grasped her shoulders and shook her, desperation pouring from him in a torrent that overwhelmed her senses. He was weeping, and his tears fell upon her like salt rain.

She squeezed her eyes more tightly shut, twisting her head away from him. In swift response, his hands went to her neck, fingers biting her flesh.

Yes, she thought, abstracting the pain. This is better. Let him kill me.

She was losing consciousness when she heard a chime. The pressure suddenly eased and his weight lifted. She heard his voice, disembodied, muffled, still sobbing: “What is it? What?”

“We have a visitor,” answered a man's voice. It seemed smug, triumphant. “The Lord Twapar is here to see us.”

oOo

The Circle Chamber was silent, its occupants absorbing the evidence they had just been presented. Jaya fidgeted in his seat, the Rani stared at her hands.

“We have evidently,” said Rakesh Bithal at length, taking his eyes from the visual display before him, “been the target of this subtle—and not so subtle—coercion for sometime. Can Bhaktasu Sarojin have been the first to suspect it?”

“Perhaps only the first to suspect who was not inclined to either ignore it or fold to its pressure,” said Sri Elui. “I would like to put it to the Circle. Has anyone here been approached by anyone seeking their support for legislation or adjudication?”

There was a long silence in which many pairs of eyes traded glances full of question.

Rakesh Bithal's expression as he surveyed his peers was particularly dark.

“Come, now,” he said at last. “It doesn't take the Jadu to divine that there must be members of this Council who have been tested by the Consortium. Even I can feel it. I will testify that I have not, to my knowledge, been approached by any ‘lobbyists,' but there is no shame in having been.”

“Isn't there?” asked Narudin. “Doesn't it imply that you are perceived as being weak, malleable, corruptible?”

“Were you approached by the KNC, Vadin?” asked Sri Radha.

Narudin scowled and fidgeted, glancing at Bithal. “Yes. I was—to my shame. I felt ... filthy. To have them think I might be swayed by their enticements!”

“You were not,” said Bithal. “Glory in that.”

“I, too.” It was Lord Mandal who spoke, looking as shamefaced as Narudin. “And I must admit it has prejudiced me against the Consortium. The ‘enticements' that came my way were delivered anonymously, but I couldn't help but attach them to Kasi-Nawahr. Until this Workers' Coalition stepped forward to claim them, I assumed some faction within the Consortium must be responsible. I was ashamed to have been approached in such a manner. I was more ashamed that it impaired my objectivity.”

“And so,” Radha finished for him, “you didn't report it.”

The Vadin flushed deeply red. “How do you report a speculation? A man said to me, ‘If you proceed in this way, Ramji will certainly shine on you.' How am I to bring that to the Inner Circle? When I said the words aloud it sounded inane. It was only in the manner of the words that I heard the bribe, felt the threat. How am I to report that?”

Radha nodded. “Is there anyone else?”

Save for the shaking of a few heads, there was no response.

“So,” mused Sri Elui, “the Consortium gets to Bel Adivaram through his dealings with the dalali. And through Adivaram, the Sarngin that have already been corrupted by Badan-Devaki are used to further terrorize our Avasan brethren. Heinous. We must determine who is ultimately responsible for them. The evidence points to at least one member of the Kasi-Nawahr Board of Directors. The questions now is, which one—or ones?”

Bithal nodded. “We will call them all in for questioning, but that doesn't answer our most pressing problem—finding Anala Nadim. We must find Bel Adivaram and/or Duran Prakash immediately.”

“Where shall we look?” asked the Deva. “We must suspect that Prakash-sama is not in Kalimpur, or that, if he is, he arrived there somewhat later than we were told. Discovering that takes time.”

Jaya shook his head, a sudden irrational fear pushing up beneath his resolve to remain calm. “We don't have time. The evidence points to someone within the KNC Towers. The Towers are where we should begin the search, not in Kalimpur. Kalimpur is a smokescreen, just as WoCoa was a smokescreen.”

“I agree with the Nathu Rai,” said Bithal.

A light flashed by the chamber's large main view screen and Mall Gar's face appeared on it, drawing everyone's complete attention.

“You have a report, Commander?” the Deva asked.

“Indeed, Holy One. We followed Lord Twapar as you suggested. His gait was much more elastic once he left the Council Chamber. He did not go home. He went by car into the heart of the Industrial Zone. The vehicle disappeared in the block between Blossom and Nawahr Cross.”

The Deva nodded. It was no surprise. “The KNC Towers. Commander, how many men are with you?”

“Five, Holy One.”

“Leave three of them to collect Lord Twapar and apply yourself to finding Bel Adivaram. I would like both of them brought to the Circle.”

“As you wish, Deva.”

He signed off, leaving the Deva to gaze pensively at the screen.

“So, it appears our colleague has gone straight to the jinn's lair.”

“To warn the jinn?” suggested Jaya. “Now, will you send the Balin to search the place? Adivaram may be hiding there, as well.”

“Think, Nathu Rai,” said the Vadin Bithal. “The KNC complex is vast. It would take an army of Balin to search it with any hope of finding Nadim-sa. Who can say but that the attempt to find her might not mean her death? We could, however, send a smaller force to conduct a search of Prakash-sama's office.” He turned his eyes to the Deva.

“If we wait but minutes, we may have Lord Twapar to guide our search,” she said.

The words were so rational, yet Jaya had suddenly no room in him for rationality. He was terrified and the terror enraged him.

He slammed his fist against the arm of this chair. “She's there, dammit! She's in that complex! I know it!”

“How do you know?” asked Radha sharply.

“The same way I know she's not dead. The same way I know she's terrified and hurt-“

He teetered at the edge of that precipice. Yes, she was hurt. He knew it as surely as he knew that everyone in the chamber was staring at him. Breathing became suddenly difficult. An image formed behind his eyes that he could not shake away.

The Deva's eyes narrowed and she leaned forward in her seat. Light from the colored panes high up in the chamber's curved walls rippled in rainbows across her silver hair.

“Are you ill, Nathu Rai?”

Jaya barely heard her. The image in his mind was expanding in terrible detail.

The red wedding gown; the flicker of lights. Terror. Revulsion. A touch. Pain.

Jaya grasped the arm of his chair tightly enough to bruise his hands. Air refused to come to his lungs. He gasped and fought to draw himself out of the vision. It was gone suddenly, like the popping of a soap bubble, leaving him winded and shaking and aware that the fragile contact had been lost.

The Deva started out of her seat. “Jaya!”

He met the Deva's eyes. “I can't stay here and wait for them to catch Twapar. I swear to you that Ana is in immediate danger. I felt it. I saw it. Will you invoke the Power of Indra and order those offices to be searched or must I search them myself?”

The Deva hesitated. In that moment of hesitation, Jaya began to move toward the doors. Mall Gar's face appeared again on the view screen, stopping him in his tracks. Gar was visibly disturbed.

“Deva,” the Commander said, “my report is ... not a happy one.”

The hesitation was jarring and, for a chilling moment, Jaya thought Gar would tell them Ana was dead. The air in the room seemed suddenly thick and suffocating.

“We have heard very few happy reports today, Commander,” the Deva said. “Please continue.”

Gar glanced down, then back at his com-unit. “We have found the Vadin Adivaram, Holy One. He is dead.”

In the silence that followed, Jaya dared to breathe again. Ana was not dead. Ana was alive. But the vital link to her was still broken.

“How did he die?” the Deva asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“He was apparently run down near the Spaceport by an aircar. There was no sign of the vehicle, but I suspect it must have sustained considerable damage.”

Run down. Jaya closed his eyes. Those were chillingly familiar words.

He sensed a stir in the room and heard the Deva speak. “I, Radha, Deva of the Cloud Order of the Holy Dandin, take into the hands of this Circle the reins of the Power of Indra.”

“Indra!” repeated Sri Elui, standing.

“Indra!” Each Circle member in turn pronounced the holy name and stood, giving consensus to the Deva's declaration of autonomous power.

When all had spoken, Radha turned back to her com-unit. “Commander Gar, please take as many men as you can spare to the KNC complex. I want you to search every building. You will need no formal writ. I will meet you there and officially pass to you the Seal of Indra.”

oOo

Movement in the room brought Ana fully to herself on a surge of panic, but the person in the room was not one of her male tormentors; it was the house dasa now in a flurry of preparation. She was no longer sullen. A smile played around her lips. Ana lay still and watched her, trying to divine what was going on. At length the woman glanced over and saw she was awake. She paused in her activity.

“You angered the Mystic One. I did not think it possible. I have never seen him like that. What did you do?” Her mobile face displayed real interest.

Ana tried her throat. It hurt, but she managed to say, “I wouldn't ... open my eyes.”

The dasa seemed puzzled. “Not open your eyes? Why should he care if your eyes are closed?”

“I have the Jadu,” Ana whispered. “He thinks if he ...
 
He wanted me to give him the Gift—to pass it from my eyes to his. I wouldn't.”

The other woman's tawny face paled. “The Jadu?” She made a superstitious gesture. “Then you'd own his soul.”

There was real fear there. It was a fear that Ana leapt to exploit.

“Yes,” she said, trying to make her failing voice sound forceful and arch, “but, I didn't want him. So, instead, I drove him to fury—to madness. It is your master's soul I want, for he is a powerful man. Once I have his soul, he will never seek you out again. No other woman will even attract him. He will find you repulsive. He will send you away.”

The dasa smiled. “I think not. You see, he is sending you away.”

Ana was immediately wary. “What do you mean?”

“They are afraid. I don't know why. Perhaps they have seen what you can do to a man's mind. But they are taking you away. You will not be able to reach him. He will be here, with me, and you shall have only the Mystic One to play with your Jadu.” She all but spat the word. She rose, then, and resumed her duties.

“Where?” Ana asked. “Where are they taking me?”

But the other woman only continued to pack clothing and to smile. Ana was about to plead, when the door opened and the Mystic stepped through it. He was still wearing the hood, still terrifying. He waved the dasa out of the room. Ana began to shake all over. She couldn't see his eyes—couldn't see how much of his former madness lay there.